How to Play Four In A Row — Free Online Rules & Strategy

To play Four in a Row, two players take turns dropping discs into a grid of seven columns and six rows. Each disc falls to the lowest empty slot in the column you pick, and the first player to line up four of their own discs in a straight line — across, up and down, or diagonally — wins. If all 42 slots fill with no line of four, the game is a tie. That is all there is to the rules. The strategy is about controlling the center, blocking your opponent’s threes, and setting up two threats at once so they can only stop one. You can play it free in your browser right now against a friend or the computer, with no download and no sign-up, at Offline Games Arcade.

The rules in one minute

The board is 7 columns wide and 6 rows tall. That gives 42 slots, so each player gets at most 21 discs.
Pick a column, not a square. You click or tap a column and your disc drops to the lowest open slot. You can never place a disc floating in mid-air.
Players alternate turns. Player one always moves first, then player two, and so on.
Four in a line wins immediately. Horizontal, vertical, or diagonal all count, and the game ends the moment the fourth disc lands.
A full board with no winner is a tie. Ties are uncommon between beginners but get more frequent as both players learn to block.
A full column is closed. Once all six slots in a column are taken, you can’t drop there again.

Gravity is the rule that makes this game interesting. In tic-tac-toe you can claim any open square, but here the square you want might not be playable yet — it only becomes available once the column below it fills. Most real strategy comes from that one constraint.

Playing on Offline Games Arcade

Our version of Four in a Row has two modes, chosen from the start screen:

1 Player — you play against the computer, and you move first. The computer always takes a winning move if one is available and always blocks a move that would win for you on the spot. It also avoids drops that would hand you a win on the next turn. Beyond that it looks a few moves ahead, but it doesn’t play perfectly every turn, so a careful player can beat it.
2 Players — pass-and-play on one device. You and a friend take turns on the same screen, which makes it an easy game for a table, a couch, or a long car ride.

A running scoreboard keeps count of wins, losses and ties in 1 Player mode, and each player’s wins plus ties in 2 Players mode. The game works fully offline in the free Offline Games Arcade app for iOS and Android too, so a lack of Wi-Fi doesn’t stop a match.

Strategy 1: control the center column

If you remember one tip, make it this: drop your first disc in the middle column, and keep coming back to it.

The reason is geometry. A disc in the far-left column can only be part of horizontal lines that stretch to the right. A disc in the center column can sit in horizontal lines running either way, plus more diagonals, than a disc anywhere else on the board. More possible lines means more ways to build a four and more of your opponent’s lines you’re sitting in the way of.

This isn’t just folk wisdom. The standard 7×6 version of the game was mathematically solved in 1988, and the result is that the first player can always force a win with perfect play — but only by opening in the center column. Opening anywhere else lets a perfect second player hold a draw or win. You don’t need to memorize the solved lines to benefit; just treat the middle three columns as the most valuable real estate and the edges as the least.

Strategy 2: block every three — but look first

The most common way beginners lose is simple: the opponent gets three in a row with an open fourth slot and nobody notices. Before every move, scan the board for any line of three (or a broken line like disc–gap–disc–disc) that the other player can finish this turn. If one exists, block it. Nothing else matters until that threat is gone.

Two refinements separate decent players from strong ones:

Watch what your block sets up. When you drop a disc, the slot directly above it becomes playable. If that new slot completes a line for your opponent, your “block” just gave them the win. Always check the square above the one you’re about to fill.
Scan the diagonals twice. Horizontal and vertical threes are easy to spot. Diagonal ones, especially those built across several columns of different heights, are the ones people miss. Make a habit of tracing both diagonal directions through the last disc your opponent placed.

Strategy 3: build double threats

You can’t win against a player who blocks every three — unless you give them two threes to block at once. A double threat is a position where you have two different ways to complete four on your next turn. Your opponent can only drop one disc, so they can only stop one of them, and you win with the other.

The simplest version is on the bottom row. If you have three discs in a row along the bottom with both ends open (for example in columns two, three and four with columns one and five empty), you can win on either side. That’s why an unanswered pair in the middle of the bottom row is dangerous: it can grow into an open-ended three before the other player reacts.

More advanced double threats stack vertically. If you have a threat at a slot and another threat at the slot directly above it, your opponent is stuck: blocking the lower one fills the column up to your upper winning slot, which you then take. Look for places where two of your lines cross or sit on top of each other in the same column.

Strategy 4: play the long game with row parity

Once you’re comfortable blocking and building threats, the next idea is which row your threats sit on. Count rows from the bottom as 1 through 6. Late in the game, when the board is nearly full and players are forced to drop into whatever columns remain, the first player naturally tends to end up claiming odd-row slots and the second player even-row slots.

The practical rule that falls out of this:

If you moved first, a threat on an odd row (1, 3, 5) is the most valuable kind, because the endgame tends to deliver that slot to you.
If you moved second, even-row threats (2, 4, 6) are the ones that tend to pay off.

A threat that can’t be played yet is still useful. It creates a column that neither player wants to fill, because whoever drops the disc underneath hands the other one the slot on top. Accumulate one or two of these “poisoned” slots and your opponent eventually runs out of safe moves.

Common beginner mistakes

Playing the edges early. Corner and edge columns are part of the fewest winning lines. Save them for blocking or for the endgame.
Chasing your own three and ignoring theirs. Always check the board for your opponent’s immediate win before admiring your own setup.
Filling the slot under an enemy threat. If your opponent needs a specific square to win and it’s one row up, don’t drop the disc that makes it playable unless you’re forced to.
Forgetting the computer blocks too. Against the 1 Player computer, a single open three will almost always get blocked. Plan for two threats at once instead.

If you like Four in a Row, try these

Four in a Row sits in a family of short, turn-based strategy games that are easy to learn and reward thinking a move or two ahead. A few others you can play free in the same arcade, all with a 2-player mode:

Tic Tac Toe — the three-in-a-row ancestor, with no gravity. Great for young players before they step up to Four in a Row.
Reversi — another disc game, but here you trap and flip your opponent’s pieces, and a big lead at midgame can disappear.
Dots and Boxes — a pencil-and-paper classic that also punishes you for making the move that sets up your opponent.
Checkers — the step up into longer strategy games, with diagonal moves, jumps and kings.
Mancala — an ancient sowing game where counting a few moves ahead wins extra turns and captures.

Browse the full catalog of free board and card games to find more quick two-player matches.

FAQ

Is Four In A Row the same as Connect 4? Yes, the rules are the same: drop discs into a 7×6 grid and connect four to win. Connect 4 is a brand name for a physical version of this classic game.

Who goes first in Four In A Row? Player one always drops the first disc. In 1 Player mode on Offline Games Arcade you move first against the computer, which is an advantage because the first player can force a win with perfect play.

Can the first player always win Four In A Row? On the standard 7×6 board, yes — the game was solved in 1988, and a perfect first player who opens in the center column can always win. In practice nobody plays perfectly, so games between people are wide open.

Can I play Four In A Row against the computer? Yes. Choose 1 Player mode to play the computer, which takes wins, blocks your immediate threats and thinks a few moves ahead. Choose 2 Players to play a friend on the same device.

Is Four In A Row free with no download? Yes. It runs instantly in your browser with no download or sign-up, and it also works offline in the free Offline Games Arcade app for iOS and Android.

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